Who Are You?

“One day, the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and I know Paul but who are you?’ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.” Acts 19:15-16

I must admit that I find some of the stories in the Bible wonderfully bizarre such as this one. Let face it…we serve a wonderfully mysterious and complex God. This is a story about a group of men who were trying to exorcise demons out of a man in the name of Jesus. The problem was that they were acting upon the name of Jesus in name only to accomplish their own gain. The evil spirits even failed to recognize these men as supporters of Christ having the possessed man attack and bloody these frauds.

Although this is a strange story it is still applicable today in our world. We only have to remember the PTL Ministry and Jim Bakker. What began as a ministry based on the love and commitment for God took an unholy detour at the intersection of greed and gross power. At some point I am sure Satan did not even recognize some of the players in this corrupt ministry. The consequences of using the Lord’s name for private gain caught up with them and they too were ‘run out of the house naked and bleeding’.

Let us pursue a life where Satan is well aware of who we are and the part in which we play in God’s kingdom. He basically was saying I don’t know you as a threat to me. You play an insignificant role in God’s kingdom.

May we never give him the opportunity to say, ‘Who are you?’